Venus Mission Anniversary marks ramp-up to Venus Express Arrival
Quote:
3 March 2006
Excitement grows around the progress of ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft as the distance to its destination gets shorter, in the week which sees the anniversary of another historical Venus mission.
On 1 March 1982, the first colour picture of the Venusian surface was returned by the Russian Venera 13 spacecraft.
Now, twenty-four years later and about forty days before its thrilling arrival at Venus, the Venus Express spacecraft has passed an important exam. The Venus Express mission team declared that the spacecraft systems are ready for the orbit insertion around Venus and for the first in-orbit operations.
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40 days until arrival... watch this thread... or look up in the morning.